This invention relates generally to cartons for storing, shipping and displaying merchandise, and more particularly to a carton which is convertible into an open bin of larger volume to provide a jumble display of its contents.
In the last quarter of a century, the distribution and sale of consumer goods have undergone revolutionary changes, and in place of the corner grocer, the family-owned drug store, the local dry goods store and other retail establishments at scattered locations, we now find supermarkets, large discount chains and department stores clustered together at huge shopping centers. Yet while major advances have been made in the technology of merchandising, the fact remains that in some respects consumer psychology resists innovation, so that an apparent improvement in merchanising techniques may cause a drop in sales.
For example, packaged goods are now shipped to a retail center in cartons, and at the center, the goods which are neatly stored in the cartons are transferred to open shelves where the goods are again aligned to provide an orderly display. Thus as the consumer with his shipping cart moves along the aisles of a supermarket, he sees cans and boxes of goods all uniformly stacked in imposing arrays. Obviously, the more carefully the goods are stacked, the greater the capacity of the shelves to carry large supplies of different items.
But while an orderly display of goods may impress the consumer with the cleanliness and efficiency of the market, it also affects his attitude toward making a purchase. Because of psychological factors which may be irrational but are nevertheless real, a consumer is reluctant to upset an orderly array of goods, for it implants in his mind a no-touch, keep-off-the-goods admonition.
Some store owners are aware of the inhibiting effect of an orderly display, and it is for this reason that such owners deliberately turn the clock back and jumble their goods in open bins in the manner of an old-fashioned bargain house. Experience has shown that a jumble display is more inviting to the consumer, for it may create the impression that the store owner is disposing of goods at much below their usual price. In any case, goods displayed in this fashion are more approachable, for the purchaser does not, in his unconscious, feel that he is upsetting the applecart and thereby violating some parental stricture.
In order to produce a jumble display, it was heretofore necessary for the store owner to specially construct or purchase open bins and to transfer the goods to be sold from the shipping cartons, the cartons then being discarded. It was not possible to open the carton and then jumble the goods therein, using the carton as the display bin. Conventional cartons have stable dimensions which are just adequate for containing the merchandise when tightly packed in an orderly manner. If these goods are then jumbled in a helter skelter manner, then they occupy a much greater volume and overflow the carton.